I think I developed a certain style and level for my still photography over the last decades but I’m still a bloody beginner when it comes to the production of videos. I guess I shouldn’t start with a focal length of 850 mm, which was a little tricky to say it mildly.
I hope you still enjoy a few seconds of the time I had with the Eastern Phoebe yesterday. See you in Hollywood one of these days…. 😊
Eastern Phoebe, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa
A couple nights ago some frost came along, making for a chilly Saturday morning. It did not stop me to go out with the camera when I saw the movements of a flycatcher in the front yard. The bird turned out to be an Eastern Phoebe, a species I haven’t seen in a while. More often the phoebe is present here in spring and I believe I photographed it for the first time in the fall. There is a similar looking flycatcher around during the summer, the Eastern Wood-Pewee, but they migrate much further to South America, and the pewee left some time ago already. The Eastern Phoebe spends the winter in southeast North America and Central America.
I’m not the only one who calls this “killer light”, when a slightly muted sun in crisp fall air hits the scene. I had a great time sitting on the porch, sipping on a hot cup of coffee, and shooting away with the long lens and 1.4 teleconverter attached to the camera. The Eastern Phoebe is a lovely bird to watch. They pump their tail up and down while sitting on a perch (a pewee doesn’t do that). and look out for insects. As the air warmed up fast in the morning, the phoebe caught most of its prey just above the grass below. We may think, it’s cold, no insects, but the birds know where to find and how to feed on them.
Yesterday we were treated with a nice performance of an Eastern Wood-Pewee, feeding two juveniles in our front yard. This small flycatcher is present every year in our woods but I have never seen more than one at a time. Their song, a slurred “pee-ah-wee” or their call, a shrill “p-e-e-e-e-e-“ makes it easy to locate them between the leaves.
They sally out from an exposed perch to capture flies, bees, butterflies, wasps, and beetles and often return to the same perch. This makes it more predictable for the photographer. We had some rain and the adult pewee found plenty of insects near the ground for its offspring.
Juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewee
Another flycatcher, the Eastern Phoebe, looks very similar, but the pewee has a yellow base on its lower mandible while the phoebe’s bill is all dark. Another way to distinguish the two species is looking at their behavior on the perch. The Eastern Phoebe pumps its tail and the wing bars are less distinctive.
Eastern Phoebe, Mississippi River, Finley’s Landing, Iowa
The Eastern Phoebe is usually the first of the flycatcher family that arrives here in spring. My records show that some years I have them photographed already in late March. Today I had a pair in front of the lens, the first ones I saw in 2021. The phoebe catches insects mid-air, flying out from atop low tree branches and other perches. They are easy to identify with their black bill, legs, and feet and when perched they wag their tail in characteristic motion.
The Eastern Phoebe wasn’t the only bird that showed up since yesterday. Last night I heard an Eastern Whip-poor-will down in the valley. This morning the first House Wren started singing and probably inspecting the bird boxes, and later the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak arrived from South America.
Despite a gray cloud cover I drove down to the Green Island Wetlands this evening and found four different sandpiper species. About two dozen Pectoral Sandpipers, 15 Lesser and probably 2 Greater Yellowlegs, and for the second time since 2018 a number of Dunlins. Not close enough for a frame filling photo, but sometimes we have to accept that relaxing and watching the birds is more joyful than trying to make a picture when there is not really a picture opportunity present…
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/1000 s, f/6.3, ISO200
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, Better Beamer flash extender
An Eastern Phoebe shows up around the house once in a while. This relatively quite flycatcher perches for a few seconds on a branch, or like in this image on top of a shepherds hook, catches an insect, and lands on the next elevated spot. We usually see them every year in early spring and their appearance means most of the time ‘winter is over’. Seeing the bird frequently means hopefully they had a successful breeding season in our part of the woods. The Eastern Phoebe will migrate late September, early October to the southern part of the US or northern Mexico. It happens every year, but I will be excited as always if the first one shows up again here next spring. There is no better message at that time than ’winter is over’….
Eastern Phoebe
Before I continue with another migrating shorebird that made a stop in the Green Island Wetlands last weekend, I like to report my first of the year Eastern Phoebe. No, it wasn’t here in our woods but thirty miles south in Bellevue State Park. The landscape is very similar to ours, steep and rocky slopes with deciduous forest. I looked in my archives and found out that the arrival of the Eastern Phoebe has been always around the first week in April during the last few years. This small flycatcher is fun to watch when they catch prey in mid-air. It forages from atop tree branches or other perches. A sure sign of spring… ;-)
